How Roads Are Made: A

Step-by-Step Guide
A quick outline of the typical steps involved
in road construction.

A road construction site. PHOTO |

COURTESY

Road construction is the process of installing

soil stabilisers, asphalt, concrete, and other
materials on a defined path to create a
smoothed or paved surface that
vehicles can move on between two
destinations.

This is a complex venture that involves

paving, rehabilitation, and/or reclamation of
degraded pavements to create a motorable
roadway. It can take months or years of
planning before work can begin depending
on the size and type of the envisioned road.

How Do You Build a Road

Step by Step?
While road construction methods vary
depending on the type of road under
construction, here’s a step-by-step guide
outlining how roads are made using asphalt
and/or concrete.
5 Basic Steps of Road
Construction
Step 1: Planning

Step 2: Setting Out

Step 3: Earthworks

Step 4: Paving

Step 5: Quality Control

1. Planning
This is the initial step in any road
construction project. It involves assessing
the current and future traffic patterns and
performing a cost-benefit study to ensure the
road will serve its purpose.
Layout drawings, funding, legal, and
environmental issues are all sorted out
during this initial stage of road construction
to ensure the project runs smoothly without
running into financial or legal problems.

2. Setting Out
Setting out refers to the process of
transferring design proposals from drawings
into the ground. It demarcates site
boundaries, foundations, and other
necessary structural parts.

In most road construction projects a series of

boards are placed at intervals along the
proposed line of the road. A profile board
with a fixed height, often referred to as
traveller, is deployed to control the
excavated levels between the profile boards.

The traveller is placed in the sight-line

between two level boards to ensure it can be
seen before and after the excavation to
adjust levels accordingly.

Like in any other construction project, the

level of profile board is measured using a
line level – a short spirit level suspended on
a nylon string. The string is moved up or
down until the bubble is centred.

3. Earthworks
This is easily the most labour-intensive
procedure in road construction.
It entails the deployment of a tractor shovel,
grader, or bulldozer on site to remove the
topsoil before scraping and grading the site
to expose the underlying ground, often
known as formation level.

This is the level at which excavation ceases

and construction starts.

The soil below the formation level is known

as subgrade and it should be tested for
strength before embarking on excavation.

If the quality of the subsoil is undesirable,

the material may be removed or stabilised. If
the cost of excavation of subsoil is deemed
uneconomical, sand wicks and sand drains
may be applied.

Sand wicks are sand-filled boreholes

underneath the road embarkment. They
offer greater stability to the soil by reducing
the length that water travels in a drainage
path to disintegrate water pressure.

On the other hand, sand drains are used to

capture ground water.

It is important to provide subsoil drainage to

help deal with leakage through pavements
and verges from higher ground as well as
periodic rise and fall of the water table.

Since the thickness of the pavement

depends on the strength of the subgrade, it
is important to reinforce the subgrade by
removing poor material in cuttings and
substituting them with selected fill, providing
adequate subsoil drainage, and compacting
subgrade to a high dry density.
The subgrade can also be reinforced
through soil stabilisation procedures such as
the use of chemicals, cement, or bituminous
materials.

Since the strength of subgrade diminishes

as moisture content increases, it is important
to cover the surface in case it will be left
exposed for some time. This can be done by
covering the subgrade with a medium gauge
plastic sheet with 300mm laps or spraying a
bituminous binder with a sand topping.

4. Paving
This road construction procedure begins
once the subgrade has been prepared and
drainage systems fitted. Paving can either
be rigid or flexible depending on the precise
requirements of a project.

Rigid pavements have a higher flexural

strength, longer design life, and lower
maintenance costs, while flexible pavements
are cheaper to erect and have a higher
capacity to expand and contract with
temperature variations, hence they do not
require expansion joints.

i.) Rigid Paving

This consists of a reinforced or unreinforced

insitu concrete slab placed over a thin
granular base course. The inflexibility and
strength of rigid pavements enable the loads
and pressures to be dispersed over a wide
area of the subgrade to reduce the potential
impact.
 From top to bottom, rigid paving is made up
of these layers:

Ÿ Subgrade (existing soil).

Ÿ Subbase course of crushed stone with a

thickness of 60 cm.

Ÿ Lubricous sheath made of polythene

sheeting.

Ÿ Insitu concrete paving slab, which can be

reinforced using steel fabric or re-bar.

Ÿ Asphalt or similar topping as necessary.

Rigid pavements do not have the capacity to

expand and contract due to changes in
temperature and moisture changes.
Traverse and longitudinal joints are fitted
between slabs to prevent cracking that
happens as a result of restrained
deformations caused by temperature and
moisture variations.

The spacing of the joints is usually

determined by the temperature at which the
concrete is laid, the thickness of the slab,
expected traffic load, and the presence or
absence of slab reinforcement.

ii.) Flexible Paving

Flexible pavements are made of several

layers of asphalt or bituminous material
overlying the ready subgrade to which all the
traffic loads are distributed. They are called
“flexible’ because the entire pavement
structure bends or deflects when subjected
to traffic loads.
The thickness of every individual layer must
have the capacity to distribute loads to avert
permanent deformation of the road surface.

In flexible paving, the subgrade is

compressed with the subbase on top. The
subbase layer is usually made of crushed
stone or dry lean concrete that is laid and
compressed by a road roller machine.

The subbase should not exceed 15 cm and

is usually placed once waterproofing is
completed.

Above the subbase is the surfacing layer,

which consists of the base layer and the
wearing course.

The wearing layer is the topmost layer of

bituminous material and is often thicker
and stronger than the base layer. Its
thickness depends on the material
requirements and the anticipated traffic
loads.

Common materials used for the wearing

course include porous asphalt, hot rolled
asphalt, dense bitumen tar macadam, and
dense bitumen macadam.

On the other hand, the sub layer is usually at

least 6 cm thick and is made up of dense
bitumen macadam or asphalt. It is applied
with the suitable crossfalls and gradients.

5. Quality Control
After a road surface has been put in place, a
series of quality tests must be performed
before the road construction project can be
 deemed complete. This procedure involves
checking to confirm drainage, grading levels
and other aspects of the road are
satisfactory.

Once all the checks return positive results,

the road can now be opened for use by
motorists. Most roads can last for up to 40
years – with major upgrade works due every
decade or so.

Kenya Bets on Old Technology to

Cut Road Building Costs
Ÿ

5 Popular Road Construction

Methods and Techniques
Ÿ

Ekero Road dualling plan takes

step forward
COMPRESSED STABILIZED
EARTH BLOCKS (CSEB)

INTRODUCTION
Earth, undoubtedly is the oldest building material known. Even though building
with earth once fell out of popularity when the modern building materials and
methods were discovered, but then it gains its revival time following the energy
crisis. Moreover, growing concern and interest about environmental and
ecological issue globally also increased the used of earth as a building
material. In comparison with another building material, CSEB offered numbers
of advantages. It increases the utilization of local material and reduces the
transportation cost as the production is in situ, makes quality housing available
to more people, and generates local economy rather than spending for import
materials. Faster and easier construction method resulted in less skilled labor
required, good strength, insulation and thermal properties, less carbon
emission and embodied energy in the production phase, create extremely low
level of waste and easily dispose off, cause no direct environmental pollution
during the whole life cycle. Earth brick also have the ability to absorb
atmospheric moisture which resulted create healthy environment inside a
building for its occupant. The earth used is generally subsoil, thus the topsoil
can be used for agriculture. Building with local materials can employ local
people, and is more sustainable in crisis [1-5]. One of the drawbacks using
earth alone as a material for construction is its durability which is strongly
related to its compressive strength [6-8]. Because most soil in their natural
condition lack the strength, dimensional stability and
durability required for building construction. The technique to enhance natural
durability and strength of soil defined as soil stabilization. there are several
types of stabilization: first, mechanical stabilization; second; physical
stabilization; and third chemical stabilization [2, 9]. Limited data sources
regarding CSEB around the world with different types of soils and stabilizers
also the lack of standard performance and criteria in most country and hence
adopt standard and criteria for normal fired clay brick has moved us to give
little contribution in CSEB literatures. The rest of this paper is organized as
follows. Section 2 describes CSEB bricks in general, brick classification, the
advantage of using CSEB also production and curing method of CSEB.
Section 3 describes the mix of CSEB, types of soil and stabilizer used and the
proportion of CSEB mixes. Section 4 describes performance of CSEB
including strength, density, water absorption, moisture content, shrinkage and
durability. Finally, the conclusion of our work is described in section 5.bricks,
mortar brick, fired or unfired brick and others. CSEB brick is distinguished with
conventional fired bricks through its production process. CSEB brick requires
compaction whether it’s static, dynamic or vibro-static methods and also the
content of stabilizer added for gaining its strength. A striking contrast between
CSEB and conventional bricks is the energy consumed during the production
process and carbon emission. CSEB brick creates 22 kg CO2/tonne compare
to that of concrete blocks (143 kg CO2/tonne), common fired clay bricks (200
kg CO2/tonne) and aerated concrete blocks (280 – 375 kg CO2/tonne) during
production. In average, cement stabilised earth bricks consumed less than
10% of the input energy as used to manufacture similar fired clay and concrete
masonry unit. Production of CSEB required moderate to low skilled worker
since the CSEB manufacture is very simple. It only takes 3 stages process
which are: soil preparation, mix compression and the curing. In soil
preparation, it needs careful and correct selection of the soil to get the best
result and after the mix was put in the mould, it should be given proper
compressive load. Curing method in CSEB production usually took advantage
from natural humid where bricks could stacked immediately after compression
but the strength gain over time and it is important to prevent rapid drying out
hence the brick is moist cured under polythene sheet in the open air (humid
atmosphere where air relative humidity >70% is the best condition in order to
assure a maximum hydration of the used stabilizer) for about 28 days if used
cement as a stabilizer